The Cave
by bluedayssilvernights
Summary: Sam hears the sound of footsteps coming closer. He opens his eyes. First he sees the blonde hair shining in the sand. Then the red tentacle. AU set after the end of Lies, in which Sam loses himself in the desert and gets found by Drake.


**Warning: It's set in an AU at the end of Lies, in which Sam lose himself in the desert after seeing Drake in the Fire of Perdido Beach and Brianna doesn't **

**find him. DrakexSam, implied SamxAstrid. Slight violence.**

**Astrid's Pov.**

_Where is Sam?_

Astrid sighs and ignores the burning sense of guilt that is growing up inside her chest. Y_ou acted well_. She thinks. _You had a city to run, you couldn't care about Sam's _

_problems too__._

Those two sentences are becoming her surviving mantra.

It is not her fault.

Okay, Sam had been tortured by a boy who was more monster than human. Almost whipped to death. It was a very ugly thing. But since the beginning of the Fayz, ugly

things happened to everyone. She had been _forced_ to call her little brother a retarded. Brianna, Dekka and the Coates kids had been plastered.

_Sam should get over it somehow._ She thinks.

Instead he ran away. During the Fire of Perdido Beach, he had run away somewhere. A girl said she had seen him running away crying and screaming, after seeing Drake.

Y_ou acted well_. _You had a city to run, you couldn't care about Sam's problems too__._

Only after a lot of efforts they had managed to block Drake and imprison him. Astrid swallows, trying to not cry. It is not her fault. It is not. She has had to lie, to manipulate

the kids around her. It was her duty as a mayor, wasn't it?

After a week, no trace of Sam. Brianna and Taylor are looking for him everywhere, even in the Coates Academy, even in the Nuclear Power Plant, but nothing.

They're losing hope to find him. Maybe coyotes took him, or worse…

Astrid feels a tears running down her tears while she remembers that Drake Merwin was on the loose in the Fayz. He evaded Orc's basement and is free, a boogeyman

infesting her dreams. Astrid caresses absently Little Pete's head.

Y_ou acted well._

_Sam, where are you?_

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**Sam's Pov.**

"Would you like to drink some water?"

Sam continues to stagger and ignores his mother. She's dressed in a very informal way, with the old red jumper she wore only at home. It's an image so familiar Sam almost

sighs.

"Sam, stop. My little man. You have to rest."

"Shut up." He growls. His throat is so dry he can barely speak. His eyes are red and wet, and his feet are blistered and dirty of blood. He doesn't know where his shoes are,

or when he lost them.

He wonders vaguely where he is. Still wandering in the desert, but where? Near Perdido Beach? Near the Hermit's Shack, where months ago they met Lana?

However, every day is a torture. He spends his cold nights curled up against a rock and wakes up full of sand and dirt. He can't remember the last time he drank clean water

or eat something.

Every day is the same. Sam alternates moments of clearness to moments where everything goes white.

He must be crazy.

"Maybe it's a family thing. You accused Caine of being crazy, and look at you now." His mother's voice is derisive, at this point. The hallucinations were the second nastiest

part, after the thirst. Once he dreamed of Astrid dying, then Caine mocking his back full of horrible scars.

But this one with his mother is the worst yet.

"Please, go away. You're not my mother." He's almost begging, even if he knows that Connie Temple is not really there.

"My little man…"

"I'm not your…" He coughs, his throat is too dry to talk. He needs water, rest, but he continues to wander without a destination.

Another step. Another step. His feet hurts. He's exhausted. Astrid, Edilio, Dekka. Are they looking for him? Are they worried?

"I bet they're happy you're gone." Hisses Connie.

"No, they're not..."

"Yes. You had to be a hero. Their hero. Instead you're a useless, coward, pathetic little kid..."

Sam shakes his head: "I did my best…" He stumbles and falls on his knees.

"You were already a paranoid messed up thing, but seeing Drake again really made you snap. Poor Sam."

"Shut up. Go away. Go away, please. Shut up. Shut up."

"School Bus Sam is a writhing mess." Hums Connie.

Sam curls up in a fetal position, closing his eyes to repair them from the brutal sunlight. He realizes he is hoping to die again. Why not? His mother could be already

deceased. The girl he loves is a liar who doesn't want him. His friends…

Then he hears the sound of footsteps coming closer.

Sam opens his eyes.

First he sees the blonde hair shining in the sand.

Then the red tentacle.

"No." He whimpers. "Why him?"

"Sam? Is that you?" The hallucination of Drake comes closer. "Wow. You look nice." He grins. His smile is always the same, with too much teeth and a mad sparkle in his grey

eyes.

"Go away. If I really have to see someone… I'd rather see… My mother…" Sam babbles in a low voice.

The red tentacle squirms on the ground.

"How did you get here?" Asks the hallucination of Drake. He seems confused and interested. Sam feels a quiet kick in his ribs when he doesn't answer. "So?"

"I ran away from Perdido Beach." Sam mumbles. "Now go away. Where's my mother? Why can't I see her?"

"Uhm… I don't know, moron. Maybe because she disappeared months ago?" Asks Drake.

"She was here… It is an illusion, but she is here… Somewhere…" Sam sighs and closes his eyes, stopping his incoherent babble.

He perceives a shadow above him. Then a hand grabs his ruined t-shirt and tries to lift him. This is odd. Usually hallucinations keep mocking him until they disappear; they

never touch him.

"What are you doing?" Sam asks tiredly, remaining motionless. Then suddenly the hand releases his t-shirt. He doesn't even have time to sigh in relief that the same hand

grabs his hair and starts to pull them with violence.

"Ah! Stop!" Sam croaks, while the hallucination of Drake forces him to stand up. "You're hurting me!"

"Yeah, I know." Drake smiles and starts to walk, still cruelly yanking his head. Sam is forced to walk bent behind him.

"What are you doing? Let me go! Let me here!" Sam pleads.

Drake ignores him and keeps walking. His red, horrible tentacle whips the ground with every step, and he pretends not to hear Sam's wails of pain.

After ten minutes Sam realizes they're entering a dark and cool cave. It isn't very big, and at the end of it there's an old mattress and a pillow. Drake drags Sam here and

throws him on the mattress.

Sam just lies there, trembling, scared and exhausted. He knows that Drake probably wants to torture him in a lot of monstrous ways before killing him. He knows that he

should try to fight, use his power or run away, but he's too tired for it.

Drake looks at him for a moment, before saying with a strange smirk: "Just sleep, okay?"

And he goes away without turning back.

Sam closes his eyes. After a minute he's sleeping.

**Hope u like it! Well, I accept every critism or suggestion.**

**Sorry for any grammatical error**


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